I know a lot of folks are guessing it's Back to the Future. I'm just guessing it's a line that won't sell as much as Matty wants it to and it will be chalked up as another failure on our part as consumers.

Well aside from Back to the Future, what other licenses do they hold that they haven't really done much with yet? Or maybe it's tied in to some new license they've just secured that hasn't been announced yet. Hmmm....

Personally I'm hoping it's the 6" Back to the Future line everyone seems to be predicting. They could easily knock out all the major characters and variants that fans want in a single year's subscription. Offering a 6" scale hoverboard accessory with the full sized prop awhile back was an unusual thing to do and almost seemed like a teaser of an eventual 6" BTTF line. It would be cruel to give us a little hoverboard accessory and never have a single Marty McFly figure to pair it with.

Well aside from Back to the Future, what other licenses do they hold that they haven't really done much with yet? Or maybe it's tied in to some new license they've just secured that we don't know about yet. Hmmm....

That is what I want to know. I made sort of a 1/2 joke about it in the JLU SDCC thread but really...Are there that many profitable licenses (of the ones available) out there that Mattel hasn't tried yet?

Well aside from Back to the Future, what other licenses do they hold that they haven't really done much with yet? Or maybe it's tied in to some new license they've just secured that we don't know about yet. Hmmm....

That is what I want to know. I made sort of a 1/2 joke about it in the JLU SDCC thread but really...Are there that many profitable licenses (of the ones available) out there that Mattel hasn't tried yet?

Thundercats! M.A.S.K.Go Bots

_________________JLU Forever! And is MOTUC EVER getting around to Ram Man?

Thundercats is already a new toyline and has been failing miserably on retail store shelves these last 2 years, so how can it possibly succeed in a more limited online collector market? The new cartoon is cancelled too. I don't see how Mattel could suddenly take over the rights from Bandai , or why they'd even bother at this point.

M.A.S.K. is unlikely too since its primarily about the vehicles more than the figures who drive them. Plus doesn't Hasbro still own the rights? Kenner made the original line, and it seems Hasbro retained the rights since they produced a new Matt Trakker figure in the GI Joe line a couple years ago. According to the bio on the back of that figure's packaging, M.A.S.K. is now part of the GI Joe universe as a sub-group of Joe, just as their nemesis V.E.N.O.M. is now a sub-group of Cobra.

As for Go-Bots. Ugh. Who even wants a reboot of this line? It was always just a small, cheap alternative for parents who weren't willing to buy Transformers for their kids in the 1980s.

Last edited by shabbyblue on Mon Jul 09, 2012 6:28 pm, edited 5 times in total.

What about the recent legal matters being resolved for the 1960s Adam West Batman series as far as merchandising goes? Maybe a subscription of 6" figures based on that show?

That would actually be kind of refreshing as far as DC properties go. Something we haven't really seen before with a unique style and fashion.

Yes, that's what I was thinking. Plus offering it as a subscription gives them the excuse to justify a higher pricepoint per figure which offsets the production cost and risk of producing such a niche line of figures.

Thundercats is already a new toyline and has been failing miserably on retail store shelves these last 2 years, so how can it possibly succeed in a more limited online collector market? The new cartoon is cancelled too. I don't see how Mattel could suddenly take over the rights from Bandai , or why they'd even bother at this point.

I just threw M.A.S.K. and Go Bots out there off the top of my head. But Thundercats, there is a market for. Bandai screwed that up. The Thundercats brand is far from a failure. The new toyline may be blaze', but the classics are popular still.

I think the 60's Batman would be novel, though it's a niche market. It'd probably attract about as many people at Retro Action did.

_________________JLU Forever! And is MOTUC EVER getting around to Ram Man?

Yeah but "niche market" is a primary factor in whatever this new mystery line will be. If there was enough mass demand for it, it would be sold at retail rather than offered to a limited collector market. I think both Back to the Future and the Adam West Batman series are strong possibilities.

Also, do we know for sure if it's going to be a subscription? Or just another line sold exclusively through Mattycollector.com? Has Mattel revealed that much yet, or is it all still just speculation that this is going to be a another sub?